Macon Reporter

The following action was taken on March 29 in the House on House bill HB3373 ("blue collar jobs act"): "Rule 19(a) / Re-referred to Rules Committee."

The Rules Committees is a powerful standing committee in the House controlled by the majority. All legislation is assigned to the Rules Committee as a kind of legislative filter that sorts the more-than-6,000 bills introduced each year. The committee considers the legislation and often assigns it to other committees in order to be heard by other lawmakers. Sometimes, legislation dies in the Rules Committee if the committee decides it does not merit further consideration.

In the event that a committee fails to report to the House on a bill by applicable deadlines, it is automatically re-referred to the Rules Committee according to House rule 19(a). This is what happened with this bill.

The bill, as it was introduced in the House by Rep. Keith R. Wheeler (R-50) on Feb. 15, "provides that the Act may be referred to as the Blue Collar Jobs Act" and "amends the Illinois Enterprise Zone Act," according to the General Assembly website.

The following house representatives also co-sponsored the bill: Mark Batinick (R-97), Thomas M. Bennett (R-106), Avery Bourne (R-95), Terri Bryant (R-115), Tim Butler (R-87), Dan Caulkins (R-101), C.D. Davidsmeyer (R-100), Tom Demmer (R-90), Randy E. Frese (R-94), Amy Grant (R-42), Norine K. Hammond (R-93), Michael T. Marron (R-104), Michael P. McAuliffe (R-20), Tony McCombie (R-71), Charles Meier (R-108), Mike Murphy (R-99), Lindsay Parkhurst (R-79), Steven Reick (R-63), Dave Severin (R-117), Keith P. Sommer (R-88), Ryan Spain (R-73), Dan Ugaste (R-65), Michael D. Unes (R-91), Tom Weber (R-64), Grant Wehrli (R-41) and Patrick Windhorst (R-118).

The table below shows a history of actions for this bill through March 29.